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posted by CoolHand on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the mother-nature-strikes-back dept.

Climate Central reports

The ravages of climate change could severely hurt the ability of utilities in the 11 Western states to generate power unless they "climate proof" their power grid using renewables and energy efficiency, something they are not prepared for, according to a new study[1] [by researchers at Arizona State University, published May 18 in the journal Nature Climate Change].

[...]Higher temperatures and low stream flow reduce coal-fired power plants' ability to use water for cooling, preventing them from operating at full capacity. The most vulnerable power plants could see a reduction in power generation capacity by up to 8.8 percent, the study says.

Renewables take a hit too, but are much less vulnerable to climate change.

[...]The Arizona State study recommends Western states invest in wind, solar, and other "resilient" renewable energy sources while upgrading the power grid and encouraging conservation as ways to overcome some of the challenges climate change poses to the region's power supply.

[1] Link in TFA redirects to the URL that I included.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:33PM (#186110)

        There's no such thing as anthropogenic climate change!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:36PM (#186111)

    Whoops, I had tags in there that got stripped out...

    <self-entitled whine>
        There's no such thing as anthropogenic climate change!
    </self-entitled while<